Minecraft Subsiding Hunger Guide By: LoneRanger121

After watching a load of videos, reading tons of stories, and by personal experience, it’s evident that the techniques used for acquiring abundant food supply are rather, in a light sense, ‘weak.’ This isn’t meant to offend anybody, it’s simply an observation. I myself have been quite clueless on how to do it until recently. I thought that I could share my newly found, and first-hand experience knowledge with you.

Hunting: Overall, it seems the main technique, or rather, instinct, is to leave your humble abode and proceed to slay any animal you can find. It works rather well when tried with a short period time, but in the long run, it comes off as inefficient and tedious. With 1.8.1, it has become slightly more effective, however, seeing as chicken, cows, and pigs can all drop similar meat items. Unfortunately, though, biomes vary in the supply of these creatures, adding to the mix a heaping supply of stress.

The most beneficial of animals is the cow; one to three beef, as well as one to three leather are dropped; both of which are highly used items. Leather can be crafted into crude armor, and although rather ineffective, produce material easier to create than mining for iron or other expensive materials. The beef can be used throughout the game, as you very well know. Milk can also be obtained before slaughtering them. I propose you use a bow and some arrows to hunt, as they are long-range and don’t run out. Well, perhaps in the perspective of losing the arrows; but they are easy to craft and can be found when slaying skeletal archers.

Farming: Farming is the largest and trickiest issue at hand in my eyes. Mainly, as I once did myself, the strategy is as follows: rows usually 5×2, spread across a small lot, with different spires separated by a channel of water. After watching many-a-video, attempting multiple strategies, and burning through quite a few hunger bars, I have discovered that there is a wholesome, constant, and speedy way to farm. How to do so:

Pick a large, flat area to start a farm and/or house. Assuming you have a bucket or other means of collecting water, dig a single 1×1 hole roughly in the middle, or a fairly large corner, of the area. Place the water in this hole.

Off all four sides of the whole, walk four blocks and place a torch, or some other type of marker (if needed, of course.)

Using a hoe, preferably stone, till all of the land in this new 9×9 plot, excluding, and four squares directly adjacent to, the water hole.

In the four squares that are not tilled, feel free to place sugarcane. This is, of course, optional, but recommended.

If you have acquired some, place melon and pumpkin seeds in an ‘X-like’ formation from one corner to another, with a total of eight melons and eight pumpkins.

If you use the entire strategy, a full season of farming will reward eight pumpkins, eight melons, sixty wheat (equal to 20 bread), and eight sugarcane. This is a reasonable proportion to the required amount of resources one often uses; paper and sugar available through the sugarcane; melons provide a large amount of melon slices, which in a 9×9 grid can be crafted back into melons for compact storage, or solely crafted to obtain more seeds; the wheat, supplying the aforementioned 20 bread; and the pumpkins, well, because. Useful for light and to ward off Endermen attacks.

Also, a helpful hint: sneaking doesn’t damage/undo farmland.

Fishing: Personally, fishing provides a much more efficient, abundant, and easily accessible supply of food. Crafted using a mere stack of three sticks and two string, a fishing pole will be your best friend. Although it wares down fairly quickly, it rewards a large supply of fish in a short time; a one- to two-minute session of fishing has averaged me a pull of about six fish. This is because fish are easily accessible, both through oceans and human-made ponds. That’s right, even that 2×2 ‘infinity pool’ next to your bed can provide you with fish. However, it takes a good deal of practice for the right angle (perhaps a three-block distance from the pool, aimed down toward it some.)

Fishing is the way to go over all else, because

As mentioned before, fish are easily accessible

Fish can be cooked with coal, the same as chicken, beef, and pork

Rods require much less resources, limited to no mined items such as iron, gold, or diamond

Fishing, if not in a manmade pool, can be done from the safety of home, when one is near a river or lake

Fish are captured fairly quickly, biting your line within a few seconds (ten or so)

Fish don’t ‘spawn,’ a constant resource, so are never far away

Although they heal little, fish can be taken on mining trips for a moment’s notice bite

Also, a good setup for on-the-go fishing, courtesy of Lemonstream:

“My favorite way to get food if I run out while mining is to make a small “fishing base”. I always carry wood (not planks!), water buckets (in case of lava) and strings (spiders and spider webs in mineshafts drop these). First thing I do is I create a workbench out of the wood. After that I’ll make a furnace from the cobble I get from mining. Then I dig a small hole and fill it with water (atleast 3 blocks deep). Then I’ll get some fish from the small pond while waiting for ingots. You usually get a good amount of fish while waiting. ”

Conclusion

I hope these short tips here were well enough to help you with hunger; after experimenting with them, they have treated me well. These techniques are a collective body of ideas, and not all credit can go to me. A reliable source for farming is Minecraftwiki; the wheat description has a wealthy and valuable amount of psuedocode – code designed for average human reading. If understood correctly, your farming results will turn out better.